Friday, August 5, 2016

A Belated & Irrelevant Show of Sympathy

“President Obama talks about one of the biggest issues of his presidency, the civil war in Syria, and how it weighs on him.”

Nice try Mr. President, but you’re fooling no one. The moment you refused to impose a no-fly/no-go zone you condemned us all to hell. And none of the excuse you offered made any sense: the plan did not call for massive deployment of American military might, and did not call for thousands of American troops to be sent to Syria, and, had it been done early on in the crisis, it would hot have even called for arming rebels, as they were none. Once Assad was deprived of his military advantage, protesters would have taken over most towns and cities in Syria and would have been able to provide effective governance. Negotiations under international supervision would have accomplished the rest. No, this is not wishful thinking. We have seen these dynamics play out in the first 8-12 months. Assad’s extremely violent tactics coupled with your indifference combined to transform the situation into a civil war, a proxy war, and the largest global humanitarian catastrophe in decades.

"I am not confident that we can trust the Russians and Vladimir Putin, which is why we have to test [them].” If they don’t play ball, "Russia will have shown itself very clearly to be an irresponsible actor on the world stage that is supporting a murderous regime and will have to answer to that on the international stage.”

But how will this impression of Russia as “an irresponsible actor on the world stage” help stop its multiplying war crimes in support of Assad’s “murderous regime”? Russia’s crimes now include bombing civilian neighborhoods, targeting hospitals and doctors, and using internationally banned weapons such as white phosphorus, vacuum and cluster bombs. And still we expect Putin to show he’s willing to become a responsible actor? And let’s not forget Iran of course.

Go ahead, patronize me!

About Ammar

Ammar Abdulhamid is a Syrian-American author and pro-democracy activist based in Silver Spring, Maryland. He is the founder of the Tharwa Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to democracy promotion. His personal website and entries from his older blogs can be accessed here.

The Delirica

The Delirica is a companion blog to the Daily Digest of Global Delirium meant to highlight certain DDGD items by publishing them as separate posts. Also, the Delirica republishes articles by Ammar that appeared on other sites since 2016. Older articles can be found on Ammar's internet archive: Ammar.World